Service de Luxe

I've been aware of this film's existence since I was a teenager and after 45 years have finally caught up with it. 'Service de Luxe' is a competent assembly-line romantic comedy with Constance Bennett her usual glamorous blonde self bolstered by a vintage supporting cast (Helen Broderick is particularly good). That it is remembered today is due to its handsome young leading man fresh from Broadway snapped up by Universal.

The title will be familiar to his many admirers as the film debut of the 27 year-old Vincent Price, starting at the top playing a romantic lead in an 'A' feature opposite an established star. Already sporting the pencil-line moustache that was to come and go for the next twenty years, the young Vincent gracefully towers over the rest of the cast (even Mischa Auer!), moves comfortably in front of the camera and of course speaks in that wonderful purring baritone.

Playing a young inventor designing a new type of tractor, Vincent basically serves as eye candy for Connie Bennett and straight man to Charlie Ruggles and Mischa Auer. With odd exceptions, as when he attempts to discourage the amorous advances of Joy Hodges by telling her that madness runs in his family, we get little sense of just how deliriously funny he could later be in more eccentric roles, or how satanic a villain he would be; he would never play such a conventional lead again. Just two films later he was cast by this film's director, Rowland V. Lee, as the Duke of Clarence in 'Tower of London', in which he was murdered by Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff and it was already clear that he was not destined to continue to play uncomplicated romantic leads. After signing up with Fox in 1940 he would kept busy for the next seven years in eye-catching supporting roles in big budget prestige productions. And the rest is history.

"The Madison" agency is nimbly administered by "Helen" (Constance Bennett) delivering an all-inclusive service to the well-heeled gentleman. She and her formidable all-female team could sort out everything from dinner reservations and theatre tickets to weddings and ensuring that unwanted family members never get off the boat! It's that last task that introduces her to "Wade" (Vincent Price) but she has every expectation that he's just another one of those hapless men she keeps encountering. This fellow is a bit different. Though he comes from wealthy stock, he is determined to set up on his own and has even designed an unique form of tractor (looks more like a pint-sized Great War tank) which he needs seed money to develop. He likes her, she likes him - but just as she doesn't want a wimp, he doesn't want to be hen-pecked. Sure, the writing for the couple is on the wall from the start, but there are still some daftly amiable scenarios delivered as their anti-courtship plays out for an over-long ninety minutes. Price is a bit wooden, but he's also got just enough comedy timing to offer an half-decent foil for a Bennett who isn't really on great form here, but who still manages to own the screen. Halliwell Hobbes is once again the butler, but otherwise the supporting characters who so often provide the meat for the sandwich haven't enough to do here, and so it's really left to the two at the top of the bill to eek what they can from the meagre pickings the script provides. It's watchable enough, but aside from it being Price's first leading role, it is nothing especially memorable.

Fun comedy. A bit labored in parts, but enjoyable. Mischa Auer as a Russian chef who talks to his spirit guide and threatens at a crisis moment to return to his job at the Sara Goode Waffle Shop is a hoot. Constance Bennett is rather bland and forgettable, but it's fun to see Vincent Price six years before the classic "Laura". He looks much you would expect a young Vincent Price to look, but he sounds quite different. It's before he started doing the "Mid-Atlantic" accent that many actors affected in the 1930s and 1940s. Unfortunately, the great Helen Broderick isn't given enough to do in this film and the bland Constance Bennett is given too much.

Most romantic movies have a very basic formula...boy meets girl...couple start to fall in love...there is a misunderstanding that threatens to break them up...this is resolved and they live happily ever after. In essence, this is what you get in "Service de Luxe"...a typical formula though HOW you do through each of these steps is what makes this film a bit unique.

Helen Murphy (Constance Bennett) and her friend, Pearl (Helen Broderick) own a business called 'Dorothy Madison Service'. It's a company that solves problems and hires folks, as needed, for helpless rich folks who can't seem to do these things for themselves. The clients love her. However, when Robert (Vincent Price) is contracted with Dorothy Madison, he HATES this. He's a very self-reliant guy and wants to take care of details himself! What he doesn't realize is that his new girlfriend is Helen...of Dorothy Madison fame! She doesn't tell him, either, as she likes him...perhaps loves him and his independent ways. After all, she spends her life taking care of people and the idea of a man she does NOT need to take care of is very exciting.

In the meantime, Audrey Robinson, the daughter of a rich man who uses Dorothy Madison Service, has fallen for Robert...though he has no interest in her at all. One day, he's working and is completely distracted with his project...as Audrey blathers and essentially proposes to him. Without his realizing it, suddenly he's engaged to Audrey even though he loves Helen.

So, how will Robert get rid of Audrey? And, how will Helen get him to marry her even after he finds out who she is?

Overall, this is a very nice romance...enjoyable, clever and with likable character. The only thing working against it is that over time Vincent Price became typecast and seeing him in his first Hollywood film playing an inventor that has made an improved tractor seems odd given Price's screen persona. He just doesn't seem like the farm and tractor sort!

Romantic comedy from Universal Pictures and director Rowland V. Lee. Constance Bennett stars as Helen Murphy, who runs the title company which specializes in overseeing the mundane details of her wealthy clients' daily lives. Her exhausting work pace forces her to take a short vacation where she meets engineer Robert Wade (Vincent Price in his debut). He's on his way to the city to see about building his new tractor design, and he and Helen fall for each other without knowing the identities of each other. Wade finds a financial backer in Scott Robinson (Charlies Ruggles), but a complication in Robinson's daughter Audrey (Joy Hodges) who sets her sights on marrying Wade. Also featuring Helen Broderick, Mischa Auer, Frances Robinson, Halliwell Hobbes, Raymond Parker, Frank Coghlan Jr., Lawrence Grant, and Chester Clute.

This is an agreeable, fairly routine rom-com of the era, made noteworthy thanks to Price's debut. He was 27 at the time, and he looks traditionally handsome. He sounds as if he deepened his voice a bit to try and sound more macho, and his height is imposing. He has a scene late in the film where he angrily shouts about having insanity in his family bloodline, and I thought, "There's the Vincent I know!" Mischa Auer is amusing as a pompous Russian chef.